Thanks to Jim I now have to bear - 10 years ago we had been in NZ for 5 years, not yet fellow citizens with the saints, but well-established manuhiri, looking back a decade it seems strange that I've taught my last class in the University of Auckland, back then all Carey classes were University of Auckland classes, more recently I've been 50% Carey 50% School of Theology... a big change now that casts its shadow back to my memories of long ago...
- 20 years ago I was vice-recteur of les Facultés Protestantes au Zaïre (the institution that has now added other faculties to the two we had then to become the
Université Protestante au Congo)
- 30 years back I was beginning work on my PhD at the University of Glasgow in what was then the Faculty of Divinity but is now merely a department of Theology and Religious Studies, having recently resigned as pastor of Upper Studley Baptist Church
It is always difficult to know who to tag, in one's turn, on these occasions. I do not have a good record. Since northern hemisphere memes seem to propagate just as our academic year down here is in final panic mode I often pick
I hereby tag:
- AKMA (because his blog always has interesting reminiscences and I'd be glad of more context)
- Mark Brown (because his post Wonderful News!! gave us a tantalising fragment of the story)
- Judy Redman (to ensure that another antipodean is disturbed at this disturbing time of year, and to make sure that all those North Americans are aware that the University of New England is naturally down here!)
- AKMA has responded, with a much fuller account than mine (but I'm not ashamed, just marking!)
- Judy has also responded, also giving a fascinating insight through glimpses into her life particularly into how far from "egalitarian" our society was still in the late 20th century (I'm still not too ashamed, because still half sunk in the tide of marking :(
Labels: education
¶ 11:55 AM
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If it wasn't for RSS feeds and blogging software, on an "ordinary" website, like my Children's stories I just use the MP3 with an M3U textfile to stream the MP3 directly!
I'm sure there are easier ways... so why not tell me, and Phil in the comments, you might make both our lives easier ;-)
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there are free open source programs for podcasting. just record your speech, upload it to rss feeds. easypodcast is one:
http://www.easypodcast.com/
the other free one is audacity:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
for other windows based, try:
http://blog.scon.de/siekmann/podcaster.nsf
http://www.podifier.com/
By 
anthony, at
October 29, 2007 7:17 PM
Thanks, Anthony,
From the look of it Easypodcast does much the same job as Podifier. Anyone know why one might be better than the other?
Audacity is a superb open sound editing program, great for removing noise and generating MP3s of different quality to get the best trade off of quality and download speed.
The Siekmann blog now jumps to his Blogspot blog, can anyone give the new link to what Anthony was intending?
By Tim, at
October 29, 2007 8:01 PM
Thanks Tim and all of you for your comments. I'm a technological numpty, but I hope to give all this a try out once I get a day off. If things don't work out I'll be back no doubt with more questions!
By Phil Sumpter, at
October 31, 2007 9:51 AM
BTW Phil my email is
tim (a) carey.ac.nz
By Tim, at
October 31, 2007 2:42 PM
You know what I'm going to say...Plug self-hosted wordpress (wordpress.org) plus podpress (podpress.mightyseek.com).
It's unbelievably worth the learning curve, but you do need to set aside some time for that. Not so great in marking season.
By 
Craig, at
November 7, 2007 6:19 AM
Sorry, podpress is hosted at http://mightseek.com/podpress
By Craig, at
November 7, 2007 6:20 AM
Actually at: http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress but there is even a picture of Mighty Mouse when you get there :)
By Tim, at
November 7, 2007 2:40 PM
Thanks for sharing such an valuable information, these are very useful.
Photo David HC
- Prepare your survival kit:
- two pens
- two pencils (if it's an exam for which you have to draw graphs or whatever a sharpener too)
- eraser
- ruler
- the essential damp face cloth in a transparent plastic bag to wipe your hands - they get sweaty in exams and to cool your fevered brow and neck. It is astonishing how refreshed you'll feel and how much more cool and calm too ;-)
- Tictacs or if you are like me and 3 hours is too long between coffees caffeine tablets (but do NOT take too many, or you will swallow too many, NOT a good look!
- Before the exam:
- plan how you will get there, if it is by public transport make sure you get an earlier bus or train, if by car allow extra time for parking - you do not want to arrive flustered in a hurry
- the best advice comes from the famous Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy - Don't Panic!
- really, do not panic, however bad it seems, you will survive, and if you keep calm pass with a better grade than you expect or deserve ;-)
- During the exam:
- you planned how much time to allow for reading the paper and planning your answers (probably about 15mins, maybe 30mins for a 3 hour exam) and how long for each answer (30 mins?) write down the timetable - if you don't write it, you won't stick to it!
- read the questions - SLOWLY - work out what they mean (really mean) you are NOT going to write a brain dump "all I know about..."
- mark the questions you will answer
- write headings for your answers - you can easily add more headings (the ones you forget now) later - but if they are written on the pages that count you already have some marks
- sit back, stretch - hands locked behind head stretch your back and look at the ceiling, relax, do it again, wriggle a bit - this sounds daft, but you'll be surprised how calm it makes you feel, and calm is your friend ;-)
- keep to the timetable, be ruthless, and start the next question
- take regular breaks, use the cloth, do the stretch, relax, noticed how funny and worried everyone else looks - remember you are calm!
- If (despite the timetable, and my advice above) the 15 minute warning comes before you have finished, try to fill out the headings that are left with some key points each... that way you can get most of the marks...
Photo Jack Hynes
Photo Mr.Tea
Labels: education, exams, study-skills
¶ 4:52 PM
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Hi Tim, this is Phil from Narrative and Ontology. I'm afraid that this question doesn't relate to your post, but I'm not sure how else to contact you ... (you can delete this if it doesn't fit). I would just like to know how it is that one can post recordings onto a blog. I notice that you have done this with your Audio Bible blog, but how? I have songs on CD that I would like to post but I don't know how to do that, apart from finding a YouTube video!
Thanks in advance,
Phil.
In the please-pray-for-Myanma video a few news clips, and in the Korean missionaries video some shots of the people being talked about could have enlivened the presentation. If many people watch these then perhaps the use of the medium will get more sophisticated - though hopefully still with the occasional and therefore low(ish) tech approach of these...
Labels: evangelical, video
¶ 1:17 PM
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They got lots of predictable answers... Many echoing the writer's own list.After two days of living on the verge of evacuation in wildfire-ravaged
San Diego, I've had lots of time to think about what stuff to grab and
go in case the fire comes my way. ... What about you? If you had 30 minutes to evacuate your home, what
would you take with you? Let us know in the comments.
This really happened to us in Kinshasa, not the bushfire but the evacuation. Civil strife, foreign paratroops to oversee the evacuation of the expat community... "OK, you are leaving tomorrow, you can only take one piece of hand luggage each."
like wedding/engagement rings and heirlooms, and important
paperwork—like birth certificate, house deed, insurance papers,
passport...
We took
- a couple of changes of clothes - much more than 24 hours in the same underwear gets uncomfortable and even niffy...
- some biscuits (cookies for American speakers) and peanuts - we were not certain we'd actually reach the plane, or that a "refugee flight" would have food for the kids
- water - ditto but even more important
- swimwear - if we reached the plane and ended up in a hotel in Johannesburg the family would need entertaining
- two "important possessions" - backup disks (that was the age of the floppy), thesis data, teddy bear, carving that had sat on my desk for years, painting by Barbara's dad who had died six months earlier ...
The thing missing from all the sensible lists, but that was there by implication in our list? The small objects, other than photos (which everybody and their aunt mentioned on Lifehacker - even if only to note that are also digital now), that remind you of people and places. We are our past, as well as our present and futures.
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It's nearly the end of the year, just the marking tide to survive... I'm looking forward to my sabbatical! So, I'm buying "books"...
The first is delivered in print, I expect/hope to be surprised and delighted with a different perspective, even if the editors are all people whose works already fill my shelves ;-)
The second is actually 58 books the Word Biblical Commentary series. Paper copies of many of these are already on my shelves, but the convenience of adding them to my portable office (alias HP laptop) and to search and jump is just too good to resist... though, I have resisted the new, improved and updated edition with 59 volumes and the updated Isaiah volumes, a few hundred dollars (US!) more for three volumes is too much! ¶ 12:44 PM
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Photo by kitsu
Writing the post below, It's not what we're teaching, it's HOW we are teaching! Reminded me of Amber's post We’re Living in Their World Now. Her account introduces a teacher, incensed (and I think also in-sensed) at a student daring to email another teacher during her class:
Amber responded:
Amen! She also imagined a start-the-year speech introducing the new batch of students:
But, we still expect students, old and young in the age of MSN and TXT to sit, often in ROWS, and look to the front, while someone "delivers information and ideas"!?
Labels: education, technology
¶ 12:22 PM
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Hi Tim,
I was seven when Star Wars came out. I've never had to be connected to another phone via the operator, and I WAS able to record songs from the radio (my parents couldn't at my age)!
Yes, "we still expect students, old and young in the age of MSN and TXT to sit, often in ROWS, and look to the front, while someone "delivers information and ideas"... If the person being listened to knows what they're talking about and is open to sharing their perspective beyond the lecture script, there's value added!
I'd be interested in an unpack of the statement, "If liberal education is going to make progress and be of any value in this culture, it has to embrace the way people actually learn and consume information today, not they way they did in the days of Socrates, or even our parents. Or even, truly, us." Education is not about 'consuming information', MSN or TXT. I think what is sorely needed is an honest critique of "the way people actually learn and consume information today", which tends to be seriously lacking. The reference to Socrates is a really interesting one, particularly as he of all philosophers was most interested in the sort of dialogue that many hold to be the way forward for education in these eTimes!
By Nichthus, at
October 23, 2007 10:13 AM
Thanks, again for another perceptive comment, not least for the reminder that I should think twice before copying bits from a post that has me cheering! Sometimes the fine rhetoric misses the mark on a closer look :(
Though, I am still in agreement with what I take to be the overall intent and tone.
So, when you write:
'Yes, "we still expect students, old and young in the age of MSN and TXT to sit, often in ROWS, and look to the front, while someone "delivers information and ideas"...'
I just have to question, while I agree that as you continue:
'If the person being listened to knows what they're talking about and is open to sharing their perspective beyond the lecture script, there's value added!'
Even information delivery via lecture theatre can be ameliorated, but one talks to many is not a good way to deliver information, or even ideas. We should use it for what it can be good, to assist people to process, critique and understand the ideas and "information". After all is that not (again as you suggest) what Socrates did right?
But the kind of class room in the video is not conducive to that sort of engagement, it tends towards the old information from the front copied, or heard, by the rows but sadly left largely unprocessed. Unless we do things in, with and around the class room that subvert its influence!
By Tim, at
October 23, 2007 10:37 AM
Hi Tim,
Yes, I agree that we can and should be doing so much more as educators to teach well - and I agree that the lecture should be done well, and not be the sole part of an educational mix.
You wrote, "one talks to many is not a good way to deliver information, or even ideas". How about "One writes to many?" This of course can be implemented in e-learning 1.0 as "one writes to many" in conversation.
I applaud your last point - solid learning really does require process. But process without information is like oil without machinery; we need to take a holistic approach to teaching and learning.
I will be over your way on Monday... see you then!
By Nichthus, at
October 23, 2007 3:52 PM
Photo by athena.
Have you ever thought how sterile and alien an environment the average classroom is?
Have you every wondered what those students were doing with their laptops in your class?
Most of what we teach is not what we intended to teach, it is the things we do and say and the way we do and say them...
Michael Wesch has done it again, you may remember the brilliant YouTube video "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" now he's posted on his blog a video on teaching and the Facebook generation. A Vision of Students Today can basically either be read as a list of facts and figures from a survey of students - "read as a list" very literally since it is both presented in the video and as a list on the blog.
This is sobering [the title of my post refers to an anti-drunkenness campaign on NZ TV - "it's not the drink, it's how we are drinking"] to think about. Do we really realise how out of touch the culture into which we are seeking to inculcate our students is from the "real world"?
Before several of you remind me that students [may] need to learn that culture, since ordered thought and book-like presentation are necessary [probably/maybe] to orderly and deep thinking, I'll note that I am seeking to teach, persuade students to read books, indeed one objection made by a colleague to a class I helped plan was that it would be too successful in getting students to read - they would read less in HIS class ;-0
More striking and visceral though, for me, was the opening of the video which sets the scene and poses the issue in an empty classroom! The environment in which we teach (onsite classes) is alien and sets up a model of information which is no longer true! Information is no longer scarce, no longer "out there", no longer even ordered and organised the same way. It is not what we teach, it is how we are teaching that is the problem!
What teaching in the 21st century needs is not "better/more use of technology" - though that would be nice, nor (surely people do not actually believe this!?) students who are "as well educated as we were", but simply new ways of doing and being. Many of our deep-rooted assumptions are enshrined in material forms, "class" rooms, whiteboards, "lecturers" and the like. So, what do we do to change how we are teaching?
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Photo SamGrover
The key things are:
- keep the group small so there is real accountability and commitment
- process the notes others prepare - if you just use them 'as is' you will learn much less and it won't stick, revision is 'about' integrating knowledge into a system not merely cramming 'facts'
- keep talking - the more you talk the notes through together the better
Labels: exams, open.source, revision, study-skills
¶ 6:18 AM
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Yo Tim,
Like your work!
For further resources on how to pass exams, check out www.passingexams.net , and spread the word.
By FearlessD, at
October 16, 2007 8:42 PM
As "fearless D" says he has a site devoted to selling his book on passing exams, on the site he has a couple of freebies, I looked at the one on Exam Strategies and it is full of good advice on SITing exams, as is the La Trobe University PDF with the same title
By Tim, at
October 17, 2007 7:49 AM
Photo from Jez 
Stage One: Select topics
- Do NOT try to revise everything - that might be good for you, even great for your future usefulness to an employer ;-) but it won't help much with passing the exam!
- Identify likely topics: make a list of the topics that the exam is likely to cover. At this stage you are aiming for a longish list, but not one that includes unlikely topics. Sometimes you will even be told the topics the exam covers, if not try to identify the most important topics from what was covered in the classes and the required readings. The "learning outcomes" (or whatever your institution calls them) may help you identify topics also...
- Select the topics you will prepare. You want a list about 60% longer than the number of questions in the exam (to allow for bets that don't win), so for a 4 question exam you need a list of 6-7 likely topics, choose the most "important" first.
Noddy GuideTM
Is my name for a short simple summary of a subject or topic.
A good noddy guide will be:
- brief,
- simple but
- complete
Ideally, however, it will be written by a real scholar - avoid people with an axe to grind!
For smaller subjects, and for topics, subject "dictionaries" and "encyclopedias" are often a good source (e.g. in Bible the Anchor Bible Dictionary contains thousands of topic level noddy guides it also has quite a few subject level guides).
Stage Two: Prepare notes
Choose a noddy guide, it is worth spending some time to get the right one - ideally you will do this during the term (but I was seldom that organised ;-). The goal of this stage is to prepare a page or two about each topic, how you do this is up to you, as is what you include, but aim to cover the topic thoroughly - check this against your "noddy guide". Finding a good noddy guide for the topic is a real help, it may well also suggest ways to organise the material and headings.Double check that you have all the most important information and ideas on these sheets.
Now, having gathered the material, reduce each topic to notes that cover at most one sheet. Do NOT use full sentences and connected paragraphs, but bullet points and headings that summarise the essentials.
Photo from CraigBoney
Stage Three: Read and re-read
Now you read and reread both sets of notes... As "the day" gets near focus on the short notes - you can even take these with you to the exam room door (opinions differ, some people, like me, prefer to cram to the last minute, others like my wife prefer to have a rest in the hours just before the exam - I take my rest the day before that gives a longer rest ;-) but find the pattern that suits you) some institutions expect this and have a waste bin near the door, if not just place them in a corner and if need be retrieve them after the exam.Labels: education, exams, revision, study-skills
¶ 3:34 PM
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- dolly boy in a ducting factory - the dolly boy holds a lump of iron against the inside of the ducting while the "craftsman" hammers the aluminium rivet flat, it is quite a noisy job but in those days we had no ear protectors
- accounts clerk (temporary) - helping fix the accounts before the auditors got to see them, I worked at a side table in the CEO's office, so between the job and the telephone conversations I could not help overhearing I knew more about the company than anyone (yes, even the CEO in whose office I worked, he did not see all the invoices and receipts ;-)
- student pastor (sole charge) of a church with 10 members - it was great practice for preaching each week to people you know and who know you
- filling station attendant (night shift) during my PhD, the theory was I could get reading done in the quiet hours... after a few months of feeding the police and other denizens of the night (there were few if any all night fast food outlets in Glasgow at that time) I developed splitting headaches and had to give up this sinecure, for "real work" as:
- Father Christmas - yes I confess I am not just any red faced, portly older gentleman, I am that (now retired from the role) red faced, portly older gentleman so just send me your Christmas wish lists and I'll see what I can do!
- vice-recteur (vice-principal) of a University (well of two faculties on the way to becoming a University) with 2000 students - while there I was also (unpaid except in food) a rabbit, chicken and duck keeper (who once branched out into goose) for food, and part-time computer technician a role that dogged my steps later here in NZ :(
- part-time computer technician when our administrator left in a hurry here at Carey I
was offeredgot landed with the job of computer support, during my time our network went from six PCs on a peer to peer network sharing one printer to twenty plus PCs and laptops with an NT server and an Internet... I went from an (almost, well nearly almost) full head of hair to my present un-hirsuite state!
Photo of one of many plastic imposters by Clouds76
Labels: fun, scholarship, work
¶ 5:51 PM
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Back in May we visited the punnily named Perk Up" in Kingsland, the menu (the physical object, not the items on the list) has changed totally with no a "striking" almost garish vaguely 50s style laminated item. The actual items on the menu have not changed so much except that now several are grouped into an invent your own section. This is superb value, I had: - "chicken liver and bacon" (one item) beautifully cooked, almost as good as last times' dish,
- "mushrooms" small ones, conveniently sliced in a very mushroomy gravy (I imagine made using the juices of the mushrooms with some of the mushroom concentrate we tried at the Food Show - note to self, must find the brand and supplier) which were also superb,
- "five grain toast" what can I say, crisp, tasty, with a soft core
- "hash browns" the nearest to a disappointment, beautifully cooked, but "merely" from a Watties packet!
The service was also superb, friendly, welcoming and without being intrusive solicitous. The only missing step was failing to ask Sarah how she wanted her eggs. Still they came what I would call "between" firm enough so she ate most of them, but still slightly soft.
The coffee was good, the mochachino and cappuccino were quite happy, my long black was good and strong, hot water on the side, the only quibble was a slight bitterness (perhaps the beans were nearly but not quite as highly roasted as my last batch) but overall better than last time.
So, in conclusion -
Service: Superb
Food: Excellent
Coffee: Good
Perk Up
438 New North Road,
Kingsland,
Auckland
09 815 0434
Labels: auckland_cafes, review
¶ 9:00 AM
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There's a lot more that could be said on the topic of humor (Note: please change the misspelling in your post title).
Luther said that the Devil hates to be laughed at. Irony, hyperbole and lampoon are all used by Jesus for humorous effect but it's not always easy to catch that in translation.
By lingamish, at
October 6, 2007 5:15 PM
"Humor" is a small town Suceava, in Romania, I believe it is best known for its monastery, but fail to understand its relevance to this post.
By Tim, at
October 7, 2007 9:07 AM
The article is titled "A Prototype for Further Publication Development of the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures and Other Open-Access Journals" from its opening paragraph it is full of good stuff.
That paragraph might be dismissed as a platitude, or a pious hope, or even a utopian dream - and would have had to be, even a mere twenty years ago. Yet for over ten of those twenty years JHS has provided a working model. And one that has also changed and adapted. Changing technologies of print have permitted the Journal to be now also available in that secondary format.
The article briefly charts the progress and increasingly firm establishment of the Journal. In doing so it also comments on the acceptability of electronic publication within the academy. In a number of areas I would currently offer a less optimistic conclusion. So, Ehud writes:
Anecdotal evidence suggests that (at least in NZ) while between 1996 and our first government-conducted round of Performance Based Research Funding assessments in 2003 Electronic publication grew strongly in esteem, but that by the second round in 2006 they had again become somewhat suspect. (There MAY be good reasons for this, not all electronic journals are as scrupulous as JHS in their review processes... The evidence is merely anecdotal because the process is confidential and the criteria are secretive and not revealed to the public who pay for the exercise or to the academics who are graded by it. This is a government activity ;-)
Ehud also admits:
This surely is a major understatement! Recently the NY Times has ceased offering its Select service online through a subscription-based economic model. While the NY Times stresses the success of this subscription model with US$10 Million revenue annually, the following comment:
Suggests that this change is due to lack a real critical mass of subscribers willing to pay for online content, rather than altruism! Meanwhile although providers of mass entertainment may be able to make a financially viable model using advertising revenue, but such a model (even if the academy desired it ;-) is unlikely to be viable for the average Biblical Studies publication. For there are costs involved in electronic publishing. Despite the possibility of greater use of peer-reviewers as amateur proof-readers several open access peer reviewed publications have been criticised for issues of quality control that in a conventional print publication would have been corrected by the proof-reading process. Some reviewers of the Amos: Hypertext Bible Commentary volume have drawn attention to such issues. John in his response to Ehud's article raises the same issue that Ehud raised in his review of my Amos commentary
A return to patronage (or sponsorship as it is often known today) is another model that is increasingly touted to provide necessary resources for open access publication. In the sciences it is common now for journals to request a fee (often paid out of the grant that funded the research). However, in Biblical Studies such possibilities are not the norm. All patronage raises questions about the independence of the research and its conclusions, so such a model is not without its problems, even if rich donors with an interest in the Bible were queuing up at our doors ;-) (See Sebastian Mary's books and the man, part III: the new patronage for one interesting viewpoint.)
Up to now JHS has published its articles in basic text format. The filetypes offered have changed, now just the page representation of PDF and the more fluid HTML with the proprietary wordprocessor formats MS-Word and Word-Perfect being dropped. Both formats are capable of moving beyond text, but thus far JHS has not explored these possibilities. In part this was doubtless driven in the early days by a desire to keep the journal as familiar as possible. It has also been driven by an appropriate caution:
Now, however, changes are being explored which might see JHS begin to explore the greater possibilities that electronic publication offers beyond mere linear text.
When Ehud introduces these possibilities in this article he also mentions the need to avoid leaving readers "lost in hyperspace." Yet that is close to my experience with the early prototype pages he linked to in his email to JHS subscribers. For every occurrence of words such as Haggai or Zechariah (inevitably common in this article on "The Formation and intention of the Haggai-Zechariah corpus") produces a popup link to various online biblical texts. Since this is generated automatically the mention of "Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest" produces a less useful link to the text of Joshua 1:1. Thus in two ways this article exemplifies one of the problems with hypertexting biblical studies, link overload, and the mechanical generation of excess and unhelpful links. Different projects will doubtless cope with these issues in different ways, till gradually new conventions emerge. We need discussion of these issues, but there are few places where practitioners of academic hypertext can meet and share wisdom.
[Incidentally, the Hypertext Bible Dictionary will try to deal with this issue by generating most links (except those with biblical chapter and verse references) manually through the decision of an author or editor. See the draft instructions for authors.]
Automated linking also produces other issues, such as nul returns like that from BiBIL for the name August Klostermann. Since these results take time to generate empty results are annoying for users. This problem, of course, is one that clever programming may enable the actual implementation of this hypertext version of the Journal to avoid. But clever programming costs money, which brings us back to the issue of funding open access projects.
That JHS is doing this using XML and from the comment: "The purpose of these xml files is to allow readers to create their own hypertexts, if they so wish, within the limitations of open access databases." I assume and hope an open XML format and perhaps even a standard one like OSIS.
I will end these brief comments quoting Ehud's conclusion:
and hoping that the implementation will also be supported through ongoing conversation with other interested parties - not least JHS readers!
Labels: funding, open.access.scholarship, open.biblical.studies
¶ 5:00 PM
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Nice work, Tim. You are in command of the technical issues (I am not), or at least you make a good show of it.
That was a nice touch to include a typo in the title. As a Google search would put it: did you mean "futile," or was it "future"?
ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com
By John, at
October 5, 2007 5:44 PM
Especially since we both mention the issue of proof-reading for free online publication :) - now I have the ethical issue of if and /or how I correct it!
By Tim, at
October 5, 2007 6:04 PM
That, together with being terribly busy catching up after our lovely holiday in Thailand, explains why I have still (despite encouragement) posted on Psalm 68. I know, I must... maybe I will before the marking wave of the end of the semester breaks over me. But for now please make do with complaints, I love to tackle the mysterious and ancient praise song, but "I am a worm and not a human" and just at present not up to both tasks! ¶ 11:22 AM
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This undated photograph made available by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem shows an archaeologist next to an opening of one of the ancient beehives found in excavations in Tel Rehov in northern Israel. Archaeologists digging in northern Israel have discovered evidence of a 3,000-year-old beekeeping industry, including remnants of ancient honeycombs, beeswax and what they believe are the oldest intact beehives ever found. (AP Photo / Amihai Mazar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)Image and text from AP
Labels: archaeology, video
¶ 6:59 AM
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This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
By Lapa, at
October 4, 2007 6:05 AM
AKMA has a post noticing Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows and its business model, for forty pounds sterling you can get a package with EVERYTHING: But if all you want is the music, of the basic album, why download it and pay whatever you think is right. That's right, you fix the price.
rainbows, on CD and on 2 x 12 inch heavyweight vinyl records.
A second, enhanced CD contains more new songs, along with digital photographs
and artwork.
The discbox also includes artwork and lyric booklets.
All are encased in a hardback book and slipcase.
Business Week had this to say:
Amy Phillips on Pitchfork wrote:
AKMA expressed similar sentiments more verbosely but decorously:
I am convinced they are right... But how do people (say biblical scholars) who do not get paid mega-bucks for personal appearances and the like pay for the other people's work needed for a successful publication. Our own work is either a hobby or we are paid for it as part of our job, but whatever format we choose except the casual blog, we need proofreaders, designers, film editors etc... to help make the "product"... how do we pay them?
makes easy and by charging for what the internet doesn’t
facilitate (personal appearances, physical artifacts like packaging,
clothing, books, and so on). It’s that simple, but some
people and some corporate entities want to force the internet to
conform to the properties and characteristics of a pre-digital
environment. In the long run, they’ll be as successful as the
dinosaurs who commanded mammals to respond the the ice age by voluntary
mass extinction.
Labels: digital, media, open.biblical.studies
¶ 6:38 AM
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In a frictionless environment, I'd suggest a radical reconfiguration of the idea of teaching and scholarship -- but the constraints from the institutionalization of education constitute a barrier that only a fabulously wealthy patron could overcome. And I don't have the free time to dedicate to imagining that reconfiguration in detail, especially since the more vividly I imagine it, the more frustrating it is that it won't happen.
By AKMA, at
October 4, 2007 3:25 AM
Biblioblogger of the month
As Jim reported:
"Alan Bandy was [the]victimsubjectinterviewee for the September Biblioblogger of the Month.
Biblical studies as an international discipline
Jan Pieter van de Giessen emailed me "I think it would be nice giving some attention to nonEnglish Biblical Studies blogs". I thoroughly agree. However, there are some problems. All of us are busy, blogging is relegated to odd moments or the "small hours of the night", and many English-speaking biblical studies bloggers have not had the advantage of living or working much in other languages. Thankfully, Jan Pieter himself, Jim West (as multilingual a polymath as even John Hobbins could wish!) and others have nominated a number of posts.We should be grateful to them for their nominations mentioned in the "sections" below.
JP proposed a couple of items that I found difficult to place, Jona Lendering writes about Synesius of Cyrene in Eenoprecht onoprechte bekeerling: Synesios van Cyrene (deel 4) and Mark's new (first post 18th) TheologicalGerman/Theologisches Deutsch a site for reading and discussing theological German, with its sister site Celucien's Theological French/Français théologique which is also brand new, and looks to be planning to start from the very beginning - with the "French alphabet"!Jim also mentions a new Swedish blog Exegetisk Teologi when I looked (25th) it only had one post [Update: sorry, I don't know what happened here, put it down to being overworked and underpaid;-) there are dozens of posts.], Bilder på kung Herodes stenbrott, since this "Kredit till Dr Jim West, som på Biblical studies mailinglista, tipsade om detta", we at least know how the polymath knows of this new blog, though I am not at all sure how he discovered "Little Ho" or his post 駱駝穿過針眼 about the Camel and the eye of a needle! I suspect that humour aside, Little Ho's post on the Local (Christian) Publishing Industry 本地出版業 may be more relevant to this carnival. (NB. beware Google language tools which translated the first post's title as "Camels crossed eye")
Bible in General
Dale has a post on trusting the bible? with some interesting responses to a lecture by Bishop Spong which claimed that"The Bible is not the solution - it's the problem." Meanwhile Mark gave his students a simple test, and as a result laments The state of Bible Knowledge Today! I wonder, looking at his diagnosis framed in terms of failures of the Kiwi churches to engage with the Bible whether US students would actually do anybetter… or has the problem a different cause? (Me, I'm still shocked that anyone in an NT class would still think the book of Elijah was written by Paul ;-0Meanwhile Matt's Bible Films Blog looks set to become an encyclopedia of Bible-related filmography, with this month among others entries Golgotha - Additional Comments (which are longer than the average blog review)!
Richard had a post that reached from the priestly code to Luke, via the prophets I will gather the lame, the outcasts and the afflicted whose title explains its range!
Susanne really started something (while I was away holidaying in Thailand :) and technically falling outside this carnival's territory - being dated 31st Aug) with her Psalm 68 Part l In this post she inevitably opened up questions about God's name as well as the interesting psalm itself. So then the ball began rolling - with just a little pushing from Lingamish ;) I'll try to list all the posts (but please excuse me if I missed yours, or better still tell me and I will add it):
1st
Susanne: Psalm 68
Part 2
2nd
Psalm
68 Part 3
3rd
Lingamish: "This psalm is the most difficult of all psalms to understand and interpret." he must think higher of my capacities than I do, since he then emailed me to get involved in interpreting it ;-)
John at ancient hebrew poetry: When the Face of God Fills the Horizon: Psalm 68:2-4
Bob: Psalm 68
4th
Wayne: Ps 68: Pt. 4: A house full of children
5th
Bob: More on Psalm 68 and Some Commentaries on psalm 68
Susanne: Ps.68: Part 5 The barren woman
6th
Aristotle's Feminist Subject: How Aristotle Reads Psalm 68
Lingamish: Psalm 68: Should we be singing the yucky stuff? and Psalm 68 as a Missionary Prayer
Bob: The precipices in Psalm 68
Susanne: Ps. 68: Part 6: The heavens dripped
7th
Lingamish: How Aristotle Reads Psalm 68
John: Psalm 68:6-7 and the God of Many Names
Iyov: Psalm 68
8th
Aristotle's Feminist Subject:How Aristotle Writes Psalm 68
Susanne: Ps. 68: Part 7: Reflections
The Voice of Stefan: Why Not to Blog on Psalm 68
10th
Aristotle's Feminist Subject: Reflections Around an Embroidered Psalm
Iyov: Traditional Gentile view of Psalm 68
11th
Lingamish: Psalm 68: A threnody for 9/11
12th
Lingamish: Psalm 68: Tag, you’re it
12th
Chris admitted: Psalm 68: coming late to the party
13th
So John at ancient hebrew poetry then attempted to scoop the pool with a series of mega-posts on naming God (all dated 13th Sept), so he must have been saving them up ;-):
- 144 Names of God in the Hebrew Bible: A Journey to the Center of GodSpeak in Ancient Israel
- Do You Know God’s Name? Divine Self-Disclosure in the Hebrew Bible
- Who do you say that I am? Circumlocutions for God in the Hebrew Bible
At this point Names of God(s) probably should be considered its own thread, with contributions Names of the Gods in Some Epigraphic Hebrew and "Blessed Among the Nations" and other Divine Appellatives from Duane.
Though Ps 68 was far from finished with:
17th
Susanne: Ps. 68: Part 10
18th
Lingamish: Psalm 68: Vassals all
19th
John: The Beautiful Spoils of War: Psalm 68:12-19
Just to prove that Baptists are sturdily independent souls Sean the Baptist is ignoring the crowd and (though an NT scholar) working on Some Notes on Psalm 51 and More on Psalm 51.
Sonntagsblatt Bayern has an interview with Elijah, surely a scoop any tabloid editor would kill for…
The Other TestamentThe Other Testament has its own equivalent of the Ps 68 marathon, (it began way back before this month): but Ayrton can perhaps be credited with the first post in the series this month (2nd) Juda e os judeus nos seculos VI-IV AEC Loren followed up with (7th) Jesus Was Neither Jewish Nor Christian, Doug responded quickly (8th) Jews and Judaeans revisted,
April entered the renewed discussion (10th) with first Now Jesus is not Jewish?, then (11th) Jesus
the Israelite? and (12th) Jew or Christian? and a Link to Elliott's article (which may have started it all!) also Loren Jesus the Israelite: Questions of Anti-Semitism
Several of these posts have really good comments threads, does anyone know why NT people comment more, while OT people write posts in reply more often?!
To prove that conference season continues into September (the middle of the second semester down here) Sean the Baptist reported from the BritishNew Testament Conference 2007Torrey has a new blog Research Notes on 1 Peter which already has a couple of useful reviews on this often overlooked epistle.
Stephen Carlson notes a useful new blog NT Resources Blog, and also in discussing an article from ETL opens interesting questions about ancient citation practices (Kloppenborg Nixes an Oral Q). Mark (naturally) is disappointed that the discussion focuses on Q (Kloppenborg on Variation in the Reproduction of the Double Tradition) and in doing so plugs his forthcoming SBL paper (a useful double whammy). April, with a sideswipe at Q1, is Rewriting Early Christianity seeking to rehabilitate Acts as a source for the early history of Christianity.But then, Deirdre asks What did Paul know of Jesus and the Gospels? Judy considered Eyewitnesss accounts and asked at what point a redacted eyewitness ceases to count as an eyewitness account. In this mini-series April also discusses How can we know anything from our texts? (where anything seems defined as "information about events that happened"). Which, read in the light of the Maxi-Min conflict, causes me to realise with renewed force the importance of defining why we read before we start. Personally I am somewhat inclined to take a Jim West like stance of privileging theology over history as a motive for reading.
Is it time we recognised two or three related disciplines of historical/theological/literary biblical studies, rather than pretending we are all doing the same discipline!?
Back in the gospels Zephyr posts on Luke's Trial of Peter around the Fire.
Marco Rotman has a series of posts (in Dutch) on the life of Paul: http://bijbelaantekeningen.blogspot.com/2007/09/paulus-1.htmlhttp://bijbelaantekeningen.blogspot.com/2007/09/paulus-2.html
http://bijbelaantekeningen.blogspot.com/2007/09/paulus-3.html
http://bijbelaantekeningen.blogspot.com/2007/09/paulus-4.html
http://bijbelaantekeningen.blogspot.com/2007/09/paulus-5.html
http://bijbelaantekeningen.blogspot.com/2007/09/paulus-6.html
Sean in his Tiddlywikis and Bible Information not only makes provocative comments about the presentation of information about/related to Bible texts, but pointed us to Dave's Philemon TidlyWiki commentary. The format and delivery is fun, but I do find it somewhat disconcerting to come across StyleSheetColors immediately after Theology and Themes in the menu (which is organized as a timeline)!
James provides enough evidence of Jesus' Sense Of Humor to forever dispel Lingamish's Whoa to you who laugh and for those who are finding all this Bible blogging just a tad too tame there is the lively discussion 
Dan started with his disquisition on Pauline Scatology (and before YOU make any jokes about expecting Eschatology not scatology from DTS Dan did that one himself) and then Doug's post Oh σκύβαλα – sanitising the Bible just inflamed the fire, getting a different pool of suspects involved in the hunt for dirty words in the Bible! But then I discovered the previous post by Michael, the hilariously unsound Top Twenty
Theological Pick-up Lines NOT to use my particular favourite (one of the few equally inappropriate for any gender) is '12. During communion say, “Can I get you another drink.'
Todd continues to keep us updated on current developments in archaeology in Israel/Palestine, with posts like Mount Zion - New Excavations often enriching the posts with his fine photos. Stefan Green collected virtually every biblioblogging link to the Temple Mount excavations and added comment of his own (in Swedish). There are also what claim to be videos of the destruction with a link to a petition.
Biblische Ausbildung drew my attention to the JerusalemDrainage Tunnel from 70 CE Long running debates were not forgotten, the phrase "brother of" on the "James ossuary"is analysed by Anotonio Lombatti (in Italian).
Todd also offered us a selection of fine photos (from Aubrey Laughlin) of the Jerusalem Quarry as well as a post indicating the location using Google Earth (the image - right - comes from his first post Quarry of Temple Mount Discovered).
Astronomy (or Interdisciplinary studies?)Jan Pieter has a post on Biblical Women on Venus an unusual blending of astronomy and Bible. (With the possibility of adding feminist studies too into the mix?)
Teaching
Many biblical scholars also teach, so it is useful to note Danny's announcement of the new improved Deinde Bib. Studies Glossary, a useful link to provide for classes. The tooltip format is neat, but may make it difficult to quote a definition.
Mary discussed Free, online theological education with resources from Gordon-Conwell among others, but concludes:
Judy has a nice rant about the elitist failure of biblical scholars to popularise their work. In Making biblical scholarship available to congregational members - a bit of a rant which includes this:But these are scattered efforts by innovators, not a sustained, collective, FREE, process."
BTW the comments thread is well worth following…I have reasonably frequently heard it said that telling members of congregations about ‘modern’ biblical scholarship is not appropriate either because they wouldn’t understand or it would destroy their faith. I find this elitist and condescending and have been known to ask whether the person making the statement has understood the scholarship and if so, whether it has destroyed their faith.
Claude in Learn Hebrew points to Learn Hebrew a vocabulary learning site that offers a simpler alternative to דָּבָר : Biblical Hebrew Vocabularies. Basically Learn Hebrew offers premade themed vocabs with a word, gloss and sound file, whileדָּבָר offers the possibility of exporting your own selected words into vocabularies for your students, and a richer collection of semantic information… So many useful tools and sites are becoming available, ironically (though perhaps for related reasons) just at the time when the "owners" of the meta-sites are either ceasing to maintain them (Torrey RPBS-Resource pages - going into sleep?) or casting around for a new model (Mark The Future of the New Testament Gateway).
TechnologyReaders of the carnival are probably power-users of Bible software, but if you need a place to point your less gifted colleagues BibleandTech offers a roundup: Logos Workspace and BW7 Ben on Thoughts on Antiquity points to The Patrologia Graeca (Migne) in Greek Unicode via PDF (not a BS resource, but one many Biblists may be glad to know about).
Writing and publishing
AKMA in his Writer's Hurdles discusses two such hurdles he faced, the second concerns the search for a good opening, a topic which perhaps deserves more discussion on academic blogs ;-)
Deirdre's thoughts on writing this month include (in Pondering what to publish?) citing a gem from Rachel Toor's The Care and Feeding of the Reader "A good writer, she opines, must enchant the reader".
Charles has a rant about Why Anchor Yale Bible is Bad for Biblical Studies and the General Public which deserves more discussion and thought…Digital scholarship
One of John's fine review posts discusses Ehud Ben Zvi, the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, and Hypertextuality. While this is purely digital scholarship, another of John's reviews illustrates the usefulness and difference of blog post and "conventional" print-review his "The Book of Psalms"by Robert Alter: First Impressions does not aim (or claim) to be a full review, but offers a quick reflection on a very new work, which may help others with an interest decide whether to order, or how soon to try to read, the work in question. Thus blog and journal can complement each other. Though since John's "first impressions" continue into a series Robert Alter Translates the Psalms: A Review, Robert Alter Translates the Psalms: The Importance of Prosody, James Kugel vs. Robert Alter: The Cage Match of the Centurythe gap is narrowed, this post continues in James Kugel vs. Robert Alter:Round Two, James Kugel vs. Robert Alter on Psalm 51:7-8 Tyler also (on 27th) added his 2c in Alter on the Psalms.Christopher reviewed Eric Cline's book, From Eden to Exile, Unraveling the Mysteries of the Bible (2007), The National Geographic Society, or at least chapter one of the book - another advantage of blog reviews is the option to offer them as serials, instead of in serials ;-)
[Perhaps we could call this sort of occasional scholarship Two Cent Scholarship and the old fashioned formal kind 100% Scholarship or in the case of Brill $100 Scholarship ;-)]
Jim (West) believes that scholarship is the art of concision (!), and thus praises the notion of The History of Ancient Israel in Ten Pages. Indeed by this standard he himself excels, a 39 word notice of a 800+ page book How to Read the Bible! But it is indeed another book worth noticing!
Charles drew attention to Kugel's argument that the attempt to mix critical study of the Bible with claims that the Bible has an authoritative role in modern life is "Biblical Criticism Lite" - an undesirable project. Charles offered a link to a condensed version of Kugel's thinking and proposes that his claims be discussed. Since the notion is closely related to Avalos' SBL forum piece and book which have generated some blog interest in previous months, perhaps discussion of Kugel's thought on this can help give this issue - surely a vital one for professional Biblical Scholars - another lease of life... John also writes A Review of Chapter Five of Hector Avalos, The End of Biblical Studies I'm doubly biased (firstly I think Jonah is so brilliantly funny and such a well-written work and secondly Avalos approach does not appeal to me) so I enjoyed his paragraph:
That is Avalos’s take on the book of Jonah: “distorted,” “aggravating,” “annoying,” “ugly.” Ironic, I think. The book of Jonah is delightful precisely because it is permeated by a self-deprecating humor that is altogether lacking in Avalos.
Which is perhaps justifiable sarcasm, if Avallos' views are a vitriolic as a line John quotes suggests!
Jim (Davila) among others posted the SBL email trumpeting the new improvedONLINE CRITICAL PSEUDEPIGRAPHA PROJECT thoughsadly as Joepoints out this useful project is not (yet?) as Mac compatible as one might wish, or the press release suggested, he also offers a substantial REVIEW OF NADIA ABU EL-HAJ, FACTS ON THE GROUND: Archaeological Practice and Terriorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001)Avalos does not think highly of his fellow biblical scholars. In his “Introduction,” he says that what they have to say is “either bland, ambiguous, or outright fatuous. Since 1982, I have encountered only about a dozen truly memorable papers.”
Just before the start of this carnival, but not mentioned in the last (modesty?), Duane in Peer Review and Blogging - Discussing and Being Discussed considers the uses of tagging posts about peer-reviewed
articles, and listing citations of blogs in such articles not least as a way of marking the interaction of blogaria and conventional scholarly publishing. (Duane's post was stimulated by The BPR3 Icon Contest has anyone seen Tyler's entry? It is bound to be good!)
Other review posts included: Rod on Con Campbell on Verbal Aspect and Narrative, Jeremy's Nahum Commentaries Zephyr's Recent Letter of James Research and More With Less Recent James Research, Edward (alias Ralph) offers a review of a few paragraphs (which is the sort of detail that good print reviews avoid!) in Halpern and the Beerothites, Rick's series on I also had a few posts on Stanley Porter's
Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament (the series began in August, just),
http://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog/2007/08/29/MoreOnStanleyPortersHearingTheOldTestamentInTheNewTestament.aspxhttp://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog/2007/08/25/PortersHearingTheOldTestamentInTheNewTestament.aspx
http://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog/2007/08/16/NewBookHearingTheOldTestamentInTheNewTestamentByStanleyEPorter.aspx
And finally, my friends, since we all need help to read right I must draw attention to 5 Tips: How to Read the Bible the RIGHT Way - MY Way these tips could change your life!
_____________________________________________________________________
The next Biblical Studies Carnival is hosted by John Hobbins at Ancient Hebrew Poetry it will cover October 2007. Please nominate posts John is erudite, prolific and always interesting, but even he cannot read everything!
For more information, please consult the Biblical Studies Carnival Homepage.
Labels: archaeology, bible, biblical.studies.online, new testament, old testament, open.biblical.studies
¶ 3:15 PM
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Chris Heard has a few posts as well on 68. And my Cyber-Psalm 7 was inspired by it. Still looking forward to your giving us the final answer on what this psalm is all about...
By lingamish, at
October 1, 2007 7:50 PM
I'll get to the names of God eventually. I am simply having too much fun to rush this. We are hoping to hear from you on this topic.
By Suzanne McCarthy, at
October 1, 2007 8:35 PM
Thanks for mentioning the Deinde glossary. Just a note, I say specifically on our frontpage that the deinde glossary is meant for quick reference and not for quoting authoritatively. It is meant to be used as a quick demystifier for students. Quotable definitions would need to be found in properly published sources.
Danny
By Danny Zacharias, at
October 2, 2007 1:20 AM
Thanks for a really helpful trawl of the month. There's loads here I missed and will spend some time catching up on.
By Doug Chaplin, at
October 2, 2007 6:11 AM
Thanks! And since this was an international carnival, I will mention the norwegian www.qumran.no and my own blog, which has posts on biblical archaeology, history and geography in norwegian.
By Arne, at
October 2, 2007 7:45 AM
Thank you for mention my Swedish blogg Exegetisk Teologi. I am famous now I guess :) Anyhow, I have since June 07 posted 59 times on the blog, not just one post as it is described in your carnival. Correct should be correct, right?
By Stefan Green, at
October 2, 2007 10:02 AM
Google/Yahoo! translators are really not reliable. Thank you (Jim and Tim) for including my two posts in this Carnival.
By littleho, at
October 2, 2007 10:41 PM
John is erudite, prolific and always interesting
Please! Don't encourage him.
By lingamish, at
October 4, 2007 5:48 PM
